


Audition

by misha906 (BoopPhysics)



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 15:00:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18802687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoopPhysics/pseuds/misha906





	Audition

Marissa didn't know why her hands wouldn't stop shaking, even when all the Earth was still. She checked her phone again. 7:53. Their time slot was 8:45, and he’d agreed to meet at 7:30. It wasn’t like him to be late. A tap unlocked the device, and Marissa delved into her texts.

_Marissa-(Sent 7:32pm): Hey, where r u?_

She began to pace around the space she’d managed to secure. It was a small room, with a brightly lit vanity hugging the wall and a few chairs scattered about. Her purse and bag were thrown over one of them, and her clothes over another. A hand tugged at the collar of her bright red leotard, smoothing over any subtle pinches in the fabric while the other nervously checked over her phone again. No response.

Marissa bit her lip. Dammit, this was not a good time for him to go AWOL. A thumb found its way over the green call button.

It seemed to ring for an eternity, the phone giving her nothing more than a dial tone that stretched on and on and on. Marissa began to worry. What if he lost his phone? Or wasn’t showing up? Or maybe he got into an accident on the way over and—

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I’m almost there, I’m so sorry, Marissa,” the voice that filtered through her phone’s speakers took the weight of Atlas off her shoulders. She let out a sigh of relief. A sigh of relief that quickly turned into a hiss of irritation.

“Theo, we said 7:30!” she cried.

“I know, I know! I was almost out the house, but then my dad showed up out of nowhere and started questioning me about where I was going, and I didn’t know what to say to him, and by the time I actually left, I missed the bus,” Theo explained. He sounded winded and Marissa thought she heard the sound of traffic behind him. “But I’m almost there, promise. I can see the door from here.”

“Hurry up!”

\--

“Just a little more.”

“I don't think I can go anymore.”

“You can do it, come on, just spread your legs.”

“It's starting to hurt.”

“You're doing fine, don't worry, a little more.”

“It hurts!”

“Yeah but it'll feel better later, just raise your leg a little higher, come on, you can do it.”

Theo tried, he really did, but his body proved uncooperative. Try as he might, he could not raise his leg to be parallel to the ground while keeping his back straight. “I'm sorry. I can't.”

Marissa took her hands off his leg and sighed, “Okay, fine, let’s take a short break then, two minutes.” She spared another glance at her phone. 8:24.

Theo sank to the ground in a half split and began massaging his calf. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine, Theo,” Marissa said, grabbing her water bottle and taking a swig. “But we only have twenty minutes before the audition.”

“I know.”

“And everyone is out in force today.”

“I know.”

“Including those bitches from Clarendon.”

“I know.”

“And the Triumvirate will be in the stands, judging you.”

Theo shot Marissa a look. It was well used look. One that he’s pulled out on many occasions and one that she was similarly used to receiving. It was a look of narrowed eyes and a quirked half-smile combined with a fifteen degree tilt of the head to the left. A look that said ‘Nice try, but we’ve known each other too long and you’ve tried that too many times for that to ever work’.

Marissa shrugged, “Worth a shot.”

“Is trying to make me panic really the best move before an audition?” Theo asked, moving on to stretch his other leg. “Shouldn’t you be saying things like ‘I’ve actually replaced all of our competition with lemurs and the judges won’t know the difference’?”

He stood up and gestured for Marissa’s water bottle. He took a small swig and the bottle found its way back to her bag. They returned to the center of the room to begin their set again.

“If this is what you’re bringing to the stage, the lemurs might actually beat you,” Marissa said as they began their first leap and pirouette.

“Ouch. Harsh. But then what would people say about you? The woman who trained the man beaten by lemurs?” Theo asked. Their pirouette was finished with a flourish and a bow. Theo’s hands circled Marissa’s waist and he lifted her across the room.

“They’ll call me a visionary for being able to perform such a feat. Crown me queen of the dancing lemurs. They will worship me as their goddess and bring me fruits to eat every day.” As Theo set Marissa down, they spun around each other, pulling themselves apart and arching their legs in the air. This time, Theo’s leg managed to stretch to where it was needed to be.

“Okay, that was much better,” Marissa said as they restarted once more.

A few more practice runs brought their warm-up time to an end. She checked her phone one last time. 8:44. “You ready?”

“Not a chance in hell,” Theo said, opening the door.

“That’s the spirit.”

\--

A hand smoothed the black and grey fabric of his leotard. They were offered chairs, but both he and Melissa decided it was much better for both their nerves to stand, to expel the last of the audition jitters. Theo watched as pair after pair were called up. Most of them were pairs of girls, there were a few pairs of guys, and even fewer were the pairs like he and Marissa.

“Next up is...Hebert and Wilbourn,” the organizer called. Theo watched an excited blonde dragged a reluctant, willowy brunette out to the stage. Damn, they were at ‘H’ already. Theo walked over to Marissa to check on her.

“Why the fuck is Meinhardt here?” she whispered as Theo strode up, furiously biting her thumb.

He shrugged, “Am I supposed to know that name?”

“The leggy bitch could probably go dance down in Boston with the professionals. Why is she here? This is small-fry for her, she’ll ruin the competition,” Marissa tore her eyes away from the list and began pacing in front of the board, still gnawing at her thumb.

“Maybe it’s practice for her.”

“But if  _she’s_  here, then that means others will want to come and beat her, and no offense, Theo, but I don’t think we can beat her, not with how we are now, and how much practice we needed just to get here, and if she’s  _here_  then it’ll skew the judging ratio towards—”

A pair of hands gripped her shoulders. “Marissa. Breathe.”

Marissa breathed. In. Out. Theo took his hands off her shoulders.

“We’ll be fine,” Theo assured her. “Even if we don’t make it this time, there’s always next time, right?”

His partner shut her eyes and shook her head.

“I don’t think we’re ready,” she said.

“Newland, Anders!” Theo's response was cut short by the call of their names. The two of them turned towards the door.

“Well,” Theo said, “We won't know until we get out there."

The two of them walked towards the egress to the stage. Marissa watched Theo open the door and poke his head through.

Then immediately turn back around and slammed it shut.

“We can’t go out there,” he said.

“What?” she asked.

“We can’t go out there,” he repeated.

“Why not?”

“Legend’s out there.”

“What?”

“Legend. The hero. Flying man with the lasers. He’s in the audience.”

“Theo, stop bullshitting me.”

“I’m not bullshitting you, he’s out there. We can’t go out there.”

“Theodore Richard Anders, just open the damn door so we can get on with our audition.”

“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Marissa rolled her eyes as Theo stepped out of the way. She opened the door and looked out at the audience. Her eyes roamed the stands. Her eyes met Legend’s. He winked at her.

She fainted.


End file.
